"Partners in Crime"

This is an article that we submitted to the Starfish: The Filipino Youth Empowerment Magazine. It was published nationwide. :P Enjoy it!

Muslim Scholars’ Journey Towards Revitalizing Education

Rashid and Sittie Ayeesha

The sun is directly overhead. Scorching heat radiates through the rusty galvanized sheet roof of a shabby uninhabited house. It's midway through Ramadhan, the holy month when Muslims around the globe multiply their prayers and good deeds as best as they can and go hungry and thirsty from sunrise to sundown. Despite the heat that intensifies the anguish of a dry throat and empty stomach, a group of youngsters merrily distributes snacks to the fifty kids under that rickety house with cracked walls and leaky roof. They watch how excited the kids and their parents are in the activity they are facilitating. They can see it in the kids’ curious looks in their dirty little faces and in the hopeful eyes of the parents. Hungry. Thirsty. Yet cheerful to death.

Hours before that, they trekked on a long and dusty unpaved road that brought them to this little barangay in Saguiran that best screams that indeed Philippines is a third world country. The children, most are deeply tanned and are so lean that only their tummies exhibit bulging, wear faded clothes. Only a few wear denim jeans and almost all are just wearing worn out flip flops. To find the nearest school, one will have to travel many kilometers. No wonder, the kids here are not in school that day. Anywhere you look, you won't find the usual happy scene of children playing in the school grounds for there is no school to be found. Third world. Way underdeveloped. Here comes a group of youngsters carrying back packs and sling bags that are heavy with snacks and boxes of schools supplies like pads of paper, pens and crayons and instructional material such as flash cards, charts, children's books and posters of many sorts. That day will their plan of an outreach program will be realized.

Months before that, they were faced with a concern on how they may help alleviate the problem of illiteracy in ARMM region especially in Lanao del Sur. They, a group of thirty scholars of the World Islamic Call Society, decided to take their few small steps that will jumpstart their great journey. First roadblock they met is to find out what really is the problem or perhaps, what factors contribute to the problem and how are they going to address them. After studying the problem, they reached a consensus that ignorance of the people that goes along with poverty is indeed a factor. There are so many nooks around Lanao del Sur that are so poverty stricken and so far-flung that no academic institution can reach them. Most of the elders in those barangays have not even experienced a day in school. Thus, their kids grow up past preschool age without the knowledge of the importance of education inculcated in them. Not even the mere interest or idea on what schooling is really about is sowed in their potentially fertile minds.

And so, the group of scholars raised funds and even donated a portion of their monthly stipend for this endeavor which for them is their way of giving back their blessings. They hoped that through this small step of theirs, they may trigger the interest of the kids to go to school, enlighten the parents so they can be the ones pushing their children towards getting education, and inspire the community to take a collective action along with the government officials and agencies to do something too. Through the activity, the WICS scholars aim to plant the seeds of enlightenment that may become the rally point for the clamor for education—something that most communities in Lanao del Sur do not have.

Finally, the framework of the activity was laid down. It's going to be a one day event, which primarily aims to give the children of a barangay they will choose a taste of preschool life. They will teach the ABC's, 123's, alif ba ta's (Arabic alphabet), shapes, colors, etc. Story telling activities are conducted as well and in between class sessions are parlor games to break the ice and drawing contests to drive away the humdrum.

The World Islamic Call Society Scholars Association, from the name itself, is a group of 30 Muslim scholars from Mindanao State University in Marawi City. They are recipients of the scholarship grants by the World Islamic Call Society, an international organization stationed in Libya. As part of their moral and social responsibility, the group conducts literacy outreach programs in far-flung areas of Lanao del Sur to reinforce the value of education in the province. Aside form these outreach programs, the group also conducts series of seminars, workshops and forums designed to forward Islamic values that are tantamount to empowering the Muslim youth. For this group of scholars, being a scholar isn’t just about being in the intelligentsia nor is it just about enjoying the privileges they receive—monthly stipend, book allowance, free tuition fee etc. Rather, it is about forwarding greater cause and sharing the blessings that one receives. Indeed, “with great power comes great responsibility”, and the WICS Scholars highly recognize the power bestowed upon them.

Going back to the "classroom scene", the children are in the middle of a fiery drawing contest. For most of these kids, it is their first time to ever hold a pencil in their tiny hands. It's actually funny to watch others struggle at first with the pencil that seems to be so slimy that it slips between their fingers. But given an attractive prize for whoever will be able to give a decent drawing, the kids summon all their guts and passionately tried to make lines--straights and curves--that will manage to resemble something. Singing of some nursery rhymes and popular songs follows.

The sun's last rays still linger on the horizon. The kids are waving them goodbye. So do their parents. The WICS people dismantle the posters and other stuff they have brought. Some prepare food they call lapis--any halal food that will break their fast. This is the third time they did this and this barangay is the third they visited, yet it still feels so fresh. The sense of fulfillment is still there and immeasurable. Finally, the sun has set. The adhan or call for prayer can be heard faintly from a mosque nearby. A signal to break the fast. And they called it a day.